Friday, December 26, 2008

Today is St Stephen's Day, which is celebrated in parts of Ireland by "Wren Boys". I can remember Wren Boys going around on St Stephen's Day. It was a rural Irish thing, since when we spent Christmas in Dublin there were no Wren Boys (pronounced "Ran Boys" in Westmeath where I'm from). I could never really understand what it was supposed to be about, and nobody could tell me. It's one of those very old traditions whose use has been lost over time.

The New York Times today has a story about the British "Boxing Day" , which is what they call St Stephen's Day. The article omits the most important aspect of Boxing Day from my Irish perspective: The excellent soccer matches on TV. But, Fox Soccer Channel has a feast of soccer today, including Arsenal vs Aston Villa, so I'm not missing out....